Infamous crime scheme
The
French Connection
was a scheme through which
heroin
was smuggled from
Indochina
through
Turkey
to
France
and then to the
United States
and
Canada
. The operation started in the 1930s, reached its peak in the 1960s, and was dismantled in the 1970s. It was responsible for providing the vast majority of the heroin used in the United States at the time. The operation was headed by
Corsicans
Antoine Guerini and
Paul Carbone
(with associate
Francois Spirito
). It also involved
Auguste Ricord
,
Paul Mondoloni
and
Salvatore Greco
.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
The 1930s, '40s, and '50s
[
edit
]
Illegal heroin labs were first discovered near
Marseille
,
France
, in 1937. These labs were run by Corsican gang leader
Paul Carbone
. For years, the Corsican underworld had been involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of heroin, primarily to the
United States
.
[1]
It was this heroin network that eventually became known as "the French Connection".
The
Corsican Gang
was protected by the
Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the
SDECE
after
World War II
in exchange for working to prevent
French
Communists
from bringing the
Old Port of Marseille
under their control.
[2]
Historically, the raw material for most of the heroin consumed in the United States came from
Indochina
, then
Turkey
. Turkish farmers were licensed to grow
opium poppies
for sale to legal drug companies, but many sold their excess to the underworld market, where it was manufactured into heroin and transported to the United States. The
morphine
paste was refined in Corsican
laboratories
in Marseille, one of the busiest ports in the western
Mediterranean Sea
, known for shipping all types of illegal goods. The Marseille heroin was considered high quality.
The convenience of the port at Marseille and the frequent arrival of ships from opium-producing countries made it easy to smuggle the morphine base to Marseille from the
Far East
or the
Near East
. The French underground would then ship large quantities of heroin from Marseille to
New York City
.
The first significant post-World War II seizure was made in New York on February 5, 1947, when seven pounds (3 kg) of heroin were seized from a Corsican sailor disembarking from a vessel that had just arrived from France.
It soon became clear that the French underground was increasing not only its participation in the illegal trade of opium, but also its expertise and efficiency in heroin trafficking. On March 17, 1947, 28 pounds (13 kg) of heroin were found on the French liner
St. Tropez
. On January 7, 1949, more than 50 pounds (22.75 kg) of opium and heroin were seized on the French ship
Batista
.
After Paul Carbone's death, the Guerini clan was the ruling dynasty of the
Unione Corse
and had systematically organized the smuggling of opium from Turkey and other
Middle Eastern countries
. The Guerini clan was led by Marseille mob boss Antoine Guerini and his brothers, Barthelemy, Francois and Pascal.
[
citation needed
]
In October 1957,
a meeting
between
Sicilian Mafia
and
American Mafia
members was held at the
Grand Hotel et des Palmes
in
Palermo
to discuss the international illegal heroin trade in the French Connection.
[3]
The 1960s
[
edit
]
The first major French Connection seizure in the 1960s began in June, when an informant told a drug agent in
Lebanon
that Mauricio Rosal, the
Guatemalan
Ambassador to
Belgium
, the
Netherlands
and
Luxembourg
, was smuggling morphine base from
Beirut
to Marseille. Narcotics agents had been seizing about 200 pounds (90 kg) of heroin in a typical year, but intelligence showed that the Corsican traffickers were smuggling in 200 pounds (90 kg) every other week. Rosal alone, in one year, had used his diplomatic status to bring in about 440 pounds (200 kg).
The
Federal Bureau of Narcotics
's 1960 annual report estimated that from 2,600 to 5,000 pounds (1,200 to 2,300 kg) of heroin were coming into the United States annually from France. The French traffickers continued to exploit the demand for their illegal product, and by 1969, they were supplying the United States with 80 percent of its heroin.
[4]
On April 26, 1968, a record setting seizure was made, 246 lb (111.6 kg) of heroin smuggled to
New York
concealed in a
Citroen DS
on the
SS France (1960)
ocean liner.
[5]
[6]
[7]
The total amount smuggled during the many
transatlantic voyages
of just this one car was 1,606 lb (728.5 kg) according to arrested smuggler Jacques Bousquet.
[8]
In an effort to limit the most proximate source of supply to the Corsican cartel, US officials went to Turkey to negotiate the phasing out of opium production. Initially, the Turkish government agreed to limit their opium production starting with the 1968 crop.
At the end of the 1960s, after Robert Blemant's assassination by Antoine Guerini, a gang war started in Marseille, caused by competition over
casino
revenues. Blemant's associate Marcel Francisci continued the war over the next years.
Jean Jehan
[
edit
]
Former
New York City Police Department
Narcotics Bureau
detective
Sonny Grosso
has stated that the kingpin of the French Connection heroin ring during the 1950s into the 1960s was Corsican Jean Jehan.
[9]
Although Jehan is reported to have arranged the famous 1962 deal gone wrong of 64 pounds of "pure" heroin, he was never arrested for his involvement in international heroin smuggling. According to Grosso, all
warrants
for the arrest of Jehan were left open. For years thereafter, Jehan was reported to be seen arranging and operating drug activities at will throughout Europe. According to
William Friedkin
, director of the 1971 film
The French Connection
, Jehan had been a member of the
French Resistance
to
Nazi Occupation
during World War II and, because of that, French law enforcement officials refused to arrest him. Friedkin was told that Jehan died peacefully of old age at his home in Corsica.
[10]
The 1970s: Dismantling
[
edit
]
Following five subsequent years of concessions, combined with international cooperation, the Turkish government finally agreed in 1971 to a complete ban on the growing of Turkish poppies for the production of
opium
, effective June 29, 1971. During these protracted negotiations, law enforcement personnel went into action. One of the major roundups began on January 4, 1972, when agents from the U.S.
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
(BNDD) and French authorities seized 110 pounds (50 kg) of heroin at the
Paris
airport. Subsequently, traffickers Jean-Baptiste Croce and Joseph Mari were arrested in Marseille. One such French seizure from the French Connection in 1973 netted 210 pounds (95 kg) of heroin worth $38 million.
In February 1972, French traffickers offered a
United States Army
sergeant $96,000 (equivalent to $699,265 in 2023) to smuggle 240 pounds (109 kg) of heroin into the United States. He informed his superior who in turn notified the BNDD. As a result of this investigation, five men in New York and two in Paris were arrested with 264 pounds (120 kg) of heroin, which had a street value of $50 million. In a 14-month period, starting in February 1972, six major illicit heroin laboratories were seized and dismantled in the suburbs of Marseille by French national narcotics police in collaboration with agents from the United States
Drug Enforcement Administration
. On February 29, 1972, French authorities seized the
shrimp
boat,
Caprice des Temps
, as it put to sea near Marseille heading towards
Miami
. It was carrying 915 pounds (415 kg) of heroin. Drug arrests in France skyrocketed from 57 in 1970 to 3,016 in 1972.
Also broken up as part of this investigation was the crew of
American Mafia
Lucchese family
mobster
Vincent Papa
, whose members included
Anthony Loria Sr.
and
Virgil Alessi
. The well-organized gang was responsible for distributing close to a million dollars worth of heroin up and down the East Coast of the United States during the early 1970s, which in turn led to a major
New York Police Department
(NYPD) corruption scheme. The scope and depth of this scheme are still not known, but officials suspect it involved corrupt NYPD officers who allowed Papa, Alessi, and Loria access to the NYPD property/evidence storage room, where hundreds of kilograms of heroin lay seized from the now-infamous French Connection bust, and from which the men would help themselves and replace missing heroin with flour and
corn starch
to avoid detection.
[11]
[12]
The substitution was discovered only when officers noticed insects eating all the bags of "heroin". By that point an estimated street value of approximately $70 million worth of heroin had already been taken. The
racket
was brought to light and arrests were made. Certain plotters received jail sentences, including Papa, who was later murdered in federal prison in
Atlanta, Georgia
.
Ultimately, the Guerini clan was exterminated during internecine wars within the French underworld. In 1971, Marcel Francisci was accused by the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics of being involved in the trafficking of heroin between Marseilles and New York City.
[13]
On 16 January 1982, Marcel Francisci was shot to death as he was entering his car in the parking lot of the building where he lived in Paris, France.
[13]
List of related gangsters
[
edit
]
Unione Corse members
[
edit
]
Black members
[
edit
]
Italian-Canadian mobsters
[
edit
]
Italian-American mobsters
[
edit
]
Bonanno crime family members
[
edit
]
Gambino crime family members
[
edit
]
Lucchese crime family members
[
edit
]
- Giovanni "Big John" Ormento, a capo involved in large scale narcotic trafficking
[18]
- Salvatore Lo Proto, an important member of Big John's narcotic trafficking ring
[19]
- Angelo M. Loiacano, wholesaler of Big John Ormento's narcotic trafficking ring
[20]
- Angelo "Little Angie" Tuminaro, an associate, involved in narcotic trafficking
[18]
[21]
- Pasquale "Patsy" Fuca, nephew to Tuminaro, involved in the narcotic trade
[18]
- Anthony DiPasqua, was a narcotic trafficker
[18]
- Vincent Papa, was the mastermind behind the "Stealing of the French Connection"
- Anthony Loria, partner with Vincent Papa in the "Stealing of the French Connection"
Related films
[
edit
]
- William Friedkin
,
The French Connection
(1971)
- Francis Ford Coppola
,
The Godfather
(1972)
- Sidney J. Furie
,
Hit!
(1973)
- Robert Parrish
,
The Marseille Contract
(1974)
- John Frankenheimer
,
French Connection II
(1975)
- Andrew V. McLaglen
,
Mitchell
(1975)
- Blake Edwards
,
Revenge of the Pink Panther
(1978)
- Sidney Lumet
,
Prince of the City
(1981)
- Ridley Scott
,
American Gangster
(2007)
- Cedric Jimenez
,
The Connection (La French)
(2014)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Time.com
,
Time
, September 4, 1972
- ^
Alfred W. McCoy, Cathleen B. Reach, and Leonard D. Adams,
The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia
(Harper & Row, 1972); Peter Dale Scott,
The War Conspiracy
(Bobbs-Merrill, 1972); Henrik Krueger,
The Great Heroin Coup
(South End, 1980); Leslie Cockburn, Out of Control (
Atlantic Monthly
, 1987). Carlo Cortes, AP, Manila, Oct. 25, 1989.
- ^
Shawcross & Young,
Men Of Honour
, p. 44-45
- ^
"7 CANADIAN GANGSTERS"
. torontomagazine.com. 11 January 2012. Archived from
the original
on 14 September 2013
. Retrieved
8 December
2016
.
- ^
"Agents Seize Heroin Worth Record 22M"
.
Daily News (New York)
. 27 June 1968
. Retrieved
18 October
2020
.
- ^
Bigart, Homer (27 June 1968).
"$22.4-Million in Heroin Found in Car at City Pier; Narcotics, Secreted in Auto Sent From France, Called Largest Seizure in U.S. $22.4-Million in Heroin Is Found Hidden in a Car at Pier in City"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
18 October
2020
.
- ^
"Biggest Heroin Haul Told"
. Desert Sun. 26 June 1968
. Retrieved
18 October
2020
.
- ^
Cox, Michael (Spring 1991). "Smuggler".
9
. The Citroen Quarterly: 11.
- ^
"Tracing the French Connection"
. YouTube. Archived from
the original
on 2013-05-26
. Retrieved
20 December
2013
.
- ^
"The French Connection Audio Commentary"
. YouTube. Archived from
the original
on 2014-06-13
. Retrieved
20 December
2013
.
- ^
Blumenthal, Ralph.
"Mobster Makes Offer on French Connection Case"
, New York Times, February 21, 2009.
- ^
Maitland, Leslie.
Papa's Game
, New York Times, September 6, 1981
- ^
a
b
Marcel Francisci Shot Dead; Tied to 'French Connection'
, UPI, January 16, 1982
- ^
a
b
Humphreys, Adrian (1999).
The Enforcer:Johnny Pops Papalia, A Life and Death in the Mafia
. Toronto: Harper Collins.
ISBN
0-00-200016-4
.
- ^
Plaza Hotel (Havana)
, Wikipedia: Plaza Hotel (Havana)
- ^
[1]
, openjurist.com legal summary of Stassi conviction
- ^
Gambino underboss sentenced to prison
United Press International
(February 22, 1988)
- ^
a
b
c
d
Valentine, Douglas. "The strength of the wolf: the secret history of America's war on drugs".
see
- ^
Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime"
pg. 509
- ^
Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime"
pg.504
- ^
Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana. "Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime"
pg. 664
- ^
"The Mafia Comes to Asia, Santo Trafficante Visited Saigon in '68"
.
Gangster Report
. 31 December 2014
. Retrieved
16 April
2021
.
- This text incorporates public domain material from the
US Department of Justice
.
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